Welcome, Neighbor!

About Me

I am a Ph.D. student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. I study the History of Biblical Interpretation, which includes Jewish and Christian interpretations of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. My interests are religion, politics, TV, movies, and reading.

Friday, September 11, 2015

The Testament of Abraham: Salvation and Answered Prayer

I recently read the Testament of Abraham for my daily quiet time.
The Charlesworth Pseudepigrapha dates it to the first-second centuries
C.E. E.P. Sanders, in his editorial introduction to the work, argues
that it has an Egyptian Jewish background.

In this post, I will focus on Recension A, which is longer than
Recension B. I will use Sanders’ translation, looking primarily at
chapters 9-14.

The Testament of Abraham is about God sending his angelic
Commander-in-Chief, Michael, to Abraham. The Commander-in-Chief’s
mission is to prepare Abraham for his coming death and to escort him to
the afterlife, since it is Abraham’s time to go. But Abraham is
resistant to going, and the Commander-in-Chief does not want to inform
Abraham that he will soon die, since Abraham is a sweet, hospitable, and
righteous man. Abraham says that he wishes to see all of the world
before his death, and the Commander-in-Chief obliges.

Although Abraham in chapter 9 confessed that he was a “sinner
and…completely worthless servant,” Abraham does not have a whole lot of
tolerance when he beholds other people’s sins. Abraham sees murderous
robbers with sharp swords, and Abraham tells the Lord to send wild
beasts to kill them. Wild beasts then come from the thicket and devour
the robbers. Abraham sees a man and a woman “engaging in sexual
immorality,” and Abraham tells the Lord to “command that the earth open
and swallow them up.” The earth then opens and swallows the man and the
woman up. Abraham sees some men attempting to break into a house to
rob it, and Abraham tells the Lord to consume them with fire from
heaven. Fire then comes from heaven and consumes the robbers.

Although the Lord is complying with Abraham’s requests, they do not
exactly fit God’s will or character. A voice comes from heaven and
speaks to the Commander-in-Chief: “O Michael, Commander-in-chief,
command the chariot to stop and turn Abraham away, lest he should see
the entire inhabited world. For if he were to see all those who pass
their lives in sin, he would destroy everything that exists. For
behold, Abraham has not sinned and he has no mercy on sinners. But I
made the world, and I do not want to destroy any one of them, but I
delay the death of the sinner until he should convert and live. Now
conduct Abraham to the first gate of heaven, so that there he may see
the judgments and recompenses and repent over the souls of the sinners
which he destroyed.”

Abraham sees the judgment of the dead. Those who went on the narrow
way, a tiny minority, are saved, whereas those who traveled on the broad
way are punished. This sounds like Matthew 7:13-14 and Luke 13:23-24,
but there are indications that the Testament of Abraham is not
Christian. Jesus, or the Son of God, is not mentioned in the Testament
of Abraham. Rather, Adam is in heaven cheering humans on, hoping that
more people travel on the narrow way. And Adam’s son Abel, who was
killed by his brother Cain, is the one who judges humanity.

Abraham then sees a person whose judgment is on hold because he has
an equal number of righteous and wicked deeds. (Such a concept appears
also in rabbinic literature; see here.)
Abraham prays for this person, and the person enters into Paradise.
Abraham, after seeing the bleakness of judgment, perhaps concludes that
people need all the help they can get, so he repents of having snuffed
out the sinners whom he saw previously. He asks God for forgiveness of
his sin, and God forgives Abraham and restores the sinners who got
snuffed out. God then says that he punished these sinners “for a time,”
but that those who die prematurely at God’s hand are not requited.
Sanders’ note interprets this statement in light of “the well-known
rabbinic view that those who are punished with suffering or premature
death in this world are considered to have been sufficiently punished
and to have atoned for their sins, so that they are not punished in the
world to come…”

Here are some items:

A. Could the Testament of Abraham be somehow related to
Christianity, in terms of one influencing the other? Maybe the Testament
of Abraham got from Christianity the idea of a righteous murder victim
sitting in judgment of humanity. Perhaps, conversely, Christianity got
from the Testament of Abraham, or a prior tradition that was similar to
the Testament of Abraham, the idea that God could exalt a righteous
murder victim to heaven, where that victim would judge humanity, and it
concluded that this is what happened to Jesus. Could the Epistle to the
Hebrews be relevant to my question? Some interpret Hebrews 12:1 to mean
that Old Testament saints are a great cloud of witnesses cheering the
saints on, and that sounds similar to Adam in the Testament of Abraham
cheering humanity on. There is also Hebrews 12:24, which affirms that
Jesus’ blood speaks better things than that of Abel. Could Hebrews be
responding to a tradition like the Testament of Abraham, in which Abel
was judging humanity?

B. In reading the Testament of Abraham, I thought about some ideas
in Scripture. In the New Testament, we often encounter the idea that
God will grant any request that a disciple makes in the name of Jesus,
or with faith (Matthew 21:22; Mark 11:24; John 14:13-14; 15:7, 16;
16:23-24; I John 3:22). This troubles people. Any request? Then why
didn’t God heal so-and-so, after I prayed for him? And is not God
holding himself hostage to human whims by saying that he will answer any
request made in Jesus’ name, or in faith?

Many Christian interpreters would add qualifications to this. They
point to I John 5:14, which affirms that God answers requests that are
according to God’s will. They have also said that God answers the
requests that conform to his own character and his commandments: that,
when our character is shaped and molded according to God’s
righteousness, we ask God for the right things, and God grants our
requests. There may be something to this view. John 15:7 states: “If
ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will,
and it shall be done unto you” (KJV). I John 3:22 affirms: “And
whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments,
and do those things that are pleasing in his sight” (KJV). In these
passages, God granting our requests seems to be conditioned on us being
yielded to Christ and Christ’s righteous way, in some manner. I do not
think that this entirely solves the problem of unanswered prayer,
however, for why wouldn’t God answer the prayer of a righteous person to
heal someone else, a prayer that is made out of concern for another
person?

I also think of Genesis 27. In that chapter, Isaac blesses Jacob
when Jacob pretends to be Esau, and Isaac cannot reverse that blessing
on Jacob after the real Esau shows up. Blessings were considered to be
that powerful, in the ancient world. Does that mean, though, that God
is holding himself hostage to what people say, to people’s blessings and
cursings?

In the Testament of Abraham, God grants Abraham’s requests because
Abraham is righteous: Abraham is the sort of person who tries to be
hospitable to everyone, both those who are important in the eyes of the
world, and those who seem unimportant. But Abraham does not always make
righteous requests that accord with God’s will, and God still feels
obligated to grant those requests. At the same time, God is still in
control. God can remove Abraham from seeing more sinners so that
Abraham does not request for more sinners to be snuffed out. God can
teach Abraham about God’s nature of compassion and longsuffering,
knowing that Abraham is the type of person who will learn the lesson
that God wants to teach him. God holds himself hostage to Abraham’s
requests, on some level, but God is still in charge, navigating events
in accordance with God’s righteous will.

C. In the Testament of Abraham, God wants as many people as possible
to be saved, but only a tiny minority are saved. That is a tension
that I do not understand, but there it is. Could the co-existence of
these concepts be relevant to interpreting the New Testament within the
context of debates about universalism (i.e., God will eventually save
everyone)? There are universalist voices, particularly among certain
fourth century church fathers. Here in the Testament of Abraham,
however, we see the idea that God may want for everyone to be saved, but
God does not save everybody, only a tiny minority. For some reason
(maybe free will, and the understanding that people have enough light to
make right decisions), what God wants is not what God gets.

D. Abraham calls himself a sinner, but Abraham is not merciful
towards other sinners; what’s more, God says that Abraham is not
merciful towards them because Abraham himself has not sinned. And yet,
Abraham’s lack of compassion by itself is something that Abraham labels a
sin, and Abraham asks God for forgiveness of it. These concepts appear
contradictory. Could some of that be due to different sources in the
Testament of Abraham? Or perhaps one author believed that these
paradoxes could co-exist: yes, Abraham was righteous in terms of his
overall walk, but he was also a sinner. Even if Abraham slipped up at
times, the general pattern of his life was to conform to God’s righteous
standard.

I am not as righteous as Abraham, not by a long shot, but like
Abraham, I can acknowledge that I am a sinner, while still being
outraged at the sins that I see on television. When someone tries to
harm someone else, human or animal, that upsets me, and I desire
justice. I do not think that this is wrong. I hope, though, that I can
also be outraged at my own sins.